Outer Orbit – old school Spacewar-for-one game

https://www.masswerk.at/outerorbit/

by masswerk • 6 years ago

58 16 6 years ago

pimlottc2• 6 years ago

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but I can barely get any velocity built up, even holding down the thrust key. It's not even enough to dodge a shot, let along overcome the effects of gravity.

GrumpyYoungMan• 6 years ago

Apparently slingshotting around the sun is needed to get any appreciable velocity. Start thrusting at 90 degrees to the line between the ship and the star as soon as the ship materializes to enter an orbit.

vulcan01• 6 years ago

Yep. You can also wait for a second or so after materialisation to get a higher velocity.

shadowofneptune2• 6 years ago

What makes it even more frustrating is the wrapped screen. It's hard to predict where you'll go, while the saucers can trick shot across the screen wrap with no problem.

082349872349872• 6 years ago

Are wrapped (toroidal) screens no longer a standard video game thing? If not, when did they go out of style?

masswerk4• 6 years ago

Yes, it requires probably a bit of training: The trick is not to fight gravity, but rather use it (think Jiu Jitsu in orbit). It is meant to closely replicate the classical mechanics of Spacewar.

Compare J.M. Graetz's description:

The first result of this new attention to strategy was the opening move in Figure 3, which was quickly dubbed the "CBS opening" because of its eye-like shape. It took a while to learn this maneuver but it soon became the standard opening among experienced players, as it generally produced the most exciting games.

(See https://www.masswerk.at/spacewar/spacewar_origins/spacewar-f... for figure 3.)

This is accomplished by aligning your spaceship perpendicularly to the central star and firing your thruster for two or three seconds. There are various variations to this and it works both ways (cw and ccw). Like in Spacewar, the power of the rocket is just barely enough to escape towards the edge by keeping thrusting in a diagonal direction, but this will take a while. So the better option might be a slingshot around the "sun" in order to establish an orbit.

pimlottc2• 6 years ago

Hmm, I'll have to try that. I did attempt to orbit it but I just ended up getting killed by a UFO shot before I could get much speed going.

I have played Spacewar - or, at least, the old IBM PC port [0]. That one gives you enough thrust to overcome gravity, no problem, though it still effects your trajectory (and missiles) enough to make it interesting.

0: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Spacewar_1985

TeMPOraL• 6 years ago

Interesting. I remember playing some Linux clone of Spacewar as a kid, but back then I never understood how to work with gravity.

Right now, I've spent few minutes trying to play it as if I was playing Kerbal Space Program. Boost a bit to not fall directly into the star, then burn prograde at the highest point and retrograde at the lowest point to circularize a somewhat tight orbit, and then keep shooting at things.

mwest• 6 years ago

If you enjoy this mechanic, I have very fond memories of Star Control II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_II) which did something similar.

I highly recommend checking out the open-source port "The Ur-Quan Masters" - http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

Might just re-install it to spend some time slingshotting around planets for Boxing Day... :-)

kordlessagain• 6 years ago

Except for the fact that the asteroids don't have any gravitational effects on them, which makes the entire thing pointless.

Outer Orbit – old school Spacewar-for-one game

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